Barrasso Leads Bipartisan Bill to Modernize Rural Health Care
WASHINGTON — Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., is leading a bipartisan effort to provide some regulatory relief to rural health clinics.
The bill, which Barrasso introduced with Sens. Tina Smith, D-Minn., Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., and Michael Bennet, D-Colo., would modernize the 30-year-old law governing rural health clinics across the country.
Among other things, it would provide these clinics with guidance regarding the use of nurse practitioners and physician assistants, improve the ability of rural health clinics to provide mental health services, and remove outdated lab requirements.
“As co-chairman of the Senate Rural Health Caucus, one of my top priorities is improving health care in Wyoming,” Barrasso said in a written statement.
“Rural health clinics have faced outdated and burdensome regulations for far too long. Our bipartisan legislation provides the necessary updates to ensure providers are able to give patients the high-quality care they deserve,” he said.
At the end of the last Congress, Barrasso, who is also a physician, and Smith, a member of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, worked together to pass the State Offices of Rural Health Reauthorization Act, a bill that reauthorized a key grant program that supports state health facilities across the country.
Smith said in a statement that their latest effort “will help modernize outdated laws that hamstring rural health clinics and improve access to care in rural communities.”
The legislation is endorsed by the National Association of Rural Health Clinics, the National Rural Health Association, the American Association of Nurse Practitioners and the American Academy of Physician Associates.
Full text of the legislation can be found here.
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